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Monday, July 12, 2010

Reporting on the God Gap -- Sightings

Whatever you may think of the relationship between religion and politics, there has always been a conversation between the two sectors of society. Politicians and people concerned about public policy are always looking for allies in the religious community, and religious folk have often sought to influence public policy. Martin Marty, who has devoted a lifetime to exploring this relationship, comments on a new study of this relationship, one that focuses on Catholic and Protestant faith traditions, a study that notes the complexity of these two faith traditions. I think you'll find this interesting, as the public square isn't nearly as naked as some would think, and the Christian vote isn't as monolithic as some would want us to think!

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Sightings 7/12/10

Reporting on the God Gap

-- Martin E. Marty

“A New Roadmap for Reaching Religious Americans on Public Policy Issues” is the subtitle for Beyond the God Gap, a 49-page report and chart for those who are trying to find their way among religious groups as they show up in politics and culture. The co-agents are think tank Third Way and the Public Religion Research Institute, whose regular issuances are useful for those who would “reach” and also those who “observe” religious Americans. The authors of Beyond the God Gap do know that there are non-religious folk and forces out there, but in their minds they cannot be “reached” efficiently on public issues. Forget the “new atheists” then, for a moment, as the authors of this report do.

What is more, while both of the sponsors of this project have interests in all religions, Beyond the God Gap deals only with Christians. The surveyors know that the varieties of Jews and Muslims are also reaching and being reached on public policy issues, but the topic for the Third Way and PRRI is “Catholics” and “Protestants.” What is clear from this and countless other opinion surveys is that the old standard typified by Will Herberg’s 1955 classic, Protestant, Catholic, and Jew, would be almost useless in changed America. What Herberg called “Protestant” stood for “White Mainline Protestants” (WMPs). He hardly noticed what today are termed “White Evangelical Protestants” (WEPs) or “African American Protestants” (AAPs). These are the two groups where the “reaching from and to” is most strenuous, effective, and controversial today.

Quick, now: Think of the few times when cable news dealt with “White Mainline Protestants” on public issues. We can foresee one, as the Presbyterian General Assembly soon will debate topics relating to Palestinians and Israelis. Another has to do with conflict over gay marriage and ordaining homosexuals. For the rest, dealings with WMPs are mainly diversions as politicians and public figures court or avoid WEPs and AAPs, who encamp in sufficiently definable identity sectors to warrant attention. Even here, Beyond the God Gap has to parse things somewhat more finely – for example, where they find substantial differences between young versus middle-aged WEPs on homosexuality and other such fronts of controversy. It is also clear that there is no simple “Roman Catholics” group, since left and right factions there differ so much from each other that politicians using this road map might well drive into the ditch, and certainly will hit potholes. AAPs are somewhat more predictable when it comes to addressing public issues, or being reached. Most still vote Democratic and get cast as “liberal,” but their part of the map is also increasingly diverse.

The authors of this report say they set out to shatter stereotypes simply by interviewing citizens and finding where their loyalties and goals may be. Add up these diverse groups, and it is easy to see why three-fourths of the road-mapped groups resent it when some WEPs claim that theirs is “The Christian vote,” and when mass communicators sleepily suggest that when polled majorities among white evangelicals are interviewed as they exit voting booths, they should have a monopoly on the term “Christian,” as in “the Christian vote.” They are claiming too much, and the members of the media who grant them a monopoly do the surveys, the faiths, and social scientists a disservice. Beyond the God Gap will help with more accurate reporting, and give the public a better picture of how the religious groups line up at the polling places. The old model won’t work. A significant power shift has already occurred.

Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at http://www.illuminos.com/.

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In this month's Religion and Culture Web Forum ("The Primacy of Rhetoric"), Marty Center Senior Fellow (2009-10) W. David Hall addresses the centrality of rhetoric in the Western humanist tradition by engaging the work of Ernesto Grassi, whose commentary on the Renaissance, especially, diverged from standard Platonic models of interpretation to include arts such as rhetoric, literature, and poetry. Of especial interest for Hall is Grassi's "retrieval of the humanist tradition" during this era and the possibilities that thorough understanding of such a retrieval opens more broadly in the fields of philosophy and religious studies. With invited responses from Andrew Hass (University of Stirling), Jeff Jay (University of Chicago), Santiago Pinon (University of Chicago), Donald Phillip Verene (Emory University), and Glenn Whitehouse (Florida Gulf Coast University).

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About Me

I am a Disciples of Christ pastor, theologian, community activist, historian, teacher. I'm a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary with a M.Div. and a Ph.D. in Historical Theology. I'm the author of a number of books including Marriage in Interesting Times (Energion, 2016) and Freedom in Covenant (Wipf and Stock, 2015).